Post by Lizbeth on Aug 9, 2012 21:23:08 GMT -5
This isn't really a tutorial but just some tips for anybody who wants to take better photos
I'm sure there's more so if you think a tip can be added, feel free to post here so I can add it. But I just wanted to cover the basics of unwritten 'rules' that I've used/picked up when taking pictures and editing them. I feel they're pretty basic and can improve your photos overall by a lot without much effort put into it. Eventually it becomes second nature.
My editing isn't by any means good but I like to think I'm good at taking pictures that are nice quality so I figured I can share my knowledge about that, haha.
- The base of any good photo has to be a good quality photo. You cannot edit a JPG, blurred, bad quality photo and make it good (you can, however, take a good photo and completely ruin it but that's not the point). The base of any good photo is a good quality graphic
- Run your program on a high resolution or full-screen. Having a large photo to work with makes editing easier
- Play around with your graphics to see what your computer can and can't handle. The most important ones to adjust would be Edge Smoothing and probably Sim Detail
- Use a program, not the default camera, to take pictures. You can manage with the default camera but I prefer having a massive picture to use to edit with. Recommended programs are FRAPS and Gadwin Printscreen
- Do not resize your photos before editing. You can crop them, but it's much easier to edit and have your editing be seamless if you edit them full-size. I crop mine and then edit but I do not resize until I'm all done editing them. I never used to care about it so ultimately it's up to you but I find it makes the editing blend nicely
- The quality of your screenshots matters. FRAPS, by default, takes BMPs. If you upload a BMP to Photobucket, it will convert it to a JPG so, after I crop it, I save it as a PNG. This will INFINITELY improve your photos if you take away anything from this, it would be to save them as PNG
- Overlays/actions/contrast editing is generally geared toward your own taste. I like my photos bright and colourful so I edit them like that but I've noticed some editing can look very blue or detract. If your horse is black but ends up looking very blue or really detract from the overall photo. If you have to, use Colour Balance to add some yellow or take away from blue from your photo (or black horses, as they are notorious for looking blue)
- If you're going to use lens flares, use them properly. If there is no obvious sun in the photo, you probably don't need a lens flare but if you want to shove one in your photo, look at the shadows. Does the angle of the lens flare match up the shadows? If the answer is no, you probably should undo your lens flare and opt out of it
- Do not use Paint to edit your photos. You need a smooth brush line to add reins/mane/tail/stirrups and a pixelated line does nothing to improve your photos, in fact it detracts from it. I use Photoshop (and I know there's a free/portable version around here) but any program with a Brush option is fine
- Even if you can't edit that well, adding reins (at the very least) improves your photos by a lot (unless you use Paint). A tip that I use for picking brush size is to look at the size of the bridle and pick a brush size that is closest to that. Anything too big is clunky and bulky and anything too small looks disproportionate. The 'physics' of reins is something you'll slowly get used to (at least I had to because I haven't ridden in a long time so I completely forgot how holding reins works) but you can usually just get away with drawing reins to the hands and a small loop between hands (I have a specific, easy, way of drawing reins that maybe I'll make a tutorial for if I'm not too lazy)
- You will not magically know how to edit manes/tails/reins. This is why you practice, practice, practice! Nobody was born knowing how to edit and use Photoshop or GIMP, so don't complain that this is too hard because you can do it if you are determined to do it
I'm sure there's more so if you think a tip can be added, feel free to post here so I can add it. But I just wanted to cover the basics of unwritten 'rules' that I've used/picked up when taking pictures and editing them. I feel they're pretty basic and can improve your photos overall by a lot without much effort put into it. Eventually it becomes second nature.
My editing isn't by any means good but I like to think I'm good at taking pictures that are nice quality so I figured I can share my knowledge about that, haha.